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Gangawati Das |
My mother didn't love my father because he didn't give her enough to eat. Since she was unhappy, people told her to leave and then my father would call her back. But no one came for her, and so it was my father's sister who raised me.
I was married when I was about sixteen, and have had six children. Now I am thirty-five and we live with my husband's family, twenty-two people in all. I used to cut grass and harvest rice, but now my husband does this work while I support the family by making paintings at the Center. It was from my father's sister that I learned to make paintings of parrots, horses, minahs and camels.
I like to paint elephants, camels and horses-what you used to see when there was a wedding. Lots of people from the groom's side would ride on top of these animals on their way to the bride's house. I also paint airplanes. Each day an airplane flies low over our Center. I've never been inside a plane but seeing one each day made me imagine what it is like to sit inside and fly.
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